Without You
by beatgoeson654
Summary: Okay so I'm new to this. My first posted fanfic, so bear with me. JC all the way. A tid fluffy... not too angsty... Jimmy gets a wakeup call about his feelings for Cindy. Rated T because no one really cares about ratings. COMPLETE
1. Amazing Grace and the Eulogy

Disclaimer: I don't own Jimmy Neutron or related characters, because the world isn't perfect.

Author's Note: Hey everybody. It's Kle. This is my third written fanfic, my second finished fanfic, and my first posted one. So be nice, please.

Anyways, the summary is a bit cryptic, but it's true. So, read on, and I hope you enjoy. Originally going to be a one-shot but I kinda kept going and no one wants to read a 4,000 word one shot. Plus: I like to keep people in suspense. Hopefully this will. Anyways, here's the story:

**Without You**

Jimmy stared at his knees. The program in his hands shook so fiercely he was attracting stares, so he set it down on the pew next to him and lowered his eyes. He directed his attention to the small laminated card that had been passed around at the beginning of the service.

It was a great picture, he thought. Just the way she would have wanted to be remembered. Her green eyes danced and sparkled and her blonde hair waved in a breeze that had now ceased to blow. He recognized the picture as a cropped version of one that Libby had taped up in her locker. It was from a field trip the class had taken back in Miss Fowl's class a few years back. Under the picture was a name and a verse from a beloved song, and Jimmy read it and smiled. It was a perfect fit for her…

He felt hopeless and overwhelmed, and stowed the picture in his suit pocket, not being able to bear looking at it anymore. He buried his face in his hands and felt a small squeeze on his right shoulder. He looked to his right, and saw that it had been Libby, who now had tears streaming slowly from her eyes. Jimmy felt even more remorse for her. To lose her best friend…

He glanced at Sheen, who had his arm wrapped comfortingly and protectively around Libby's shoulder. Sheen gave Jimmy a small sad smile, the usual mischief and spark gone from his eyes for the time being.

Carl was an absolute mess on Jimmy's other side. Anything and everything made Carl cry, and funerals were high on the list that made him blubber like a small infant.

As for this funeral, however, Jimmy would not tell Carl to quiet down. Carl's outward display of emotion was not even one-tenth of what Jimmy was keeping inside.

Jimmy turned his eyes to the vaulted ceiling of the church and thought about the last two days. He realized almost immediately that he couldn't remember anything clearly. The wake was hazy, and all he could recall at all was what Libby had explained to him mere minutes ago.

_Jimmy looked up from his rocket, annoyed. Who could be coming to his lab door this late at night? He looked over to his computer screen, shocked to see none other than Libby Folfax standing there, teary-eyed. Closer inspection revealed Sheen standing almost out of view of VOX's camera and a sullen Carl in the background._

"_Jimmy," Libby sniffed, but that was all she could get out before she started sobbing. Alarmed, Jimmy threw off his lab coat and ran over to the speakerphone. "What's the matter, guys?" he asked, speaking urgently but cautiously, almost as though he didn't want to hear the answer._

_He watched the screen carefully as Libby jerked her thumb in the direction of the house across the street and began crying on Sheen's shoulder. Sheen comforted her, hugging her, though not in the playful manner he normally did. There was something somber about his attitude that scared Jimmy more than anything else had so far._

_Jimmy grabbed his outdoor coat off the chair in the corner and dashed over to the lab door, emerging outside in a matter of seconds. Libby and the others backed away from the door upon his arrival outside, and Jimmy quickly looked to each of them for an explanation, and then looked in the direction Libby had pointed._

_The Vortex household was surprisingly lit up for such a late hour and there were many cars out front, and people slowly walking in._

"_Are Cindy's parents having a party?" he asked slowly, confused._

_At Cindy's name, Libby started to cry even more hysterically, and Sheen squeezed her even tighter and gave Jimmy a warning look._

_Jimmy was getting angrier and more worried with each passing second, "If someone doesn't tell me what's going on this second, I'll-"_

"_It's a wake, Jimmy." Libby pulled her head away from Sheen's shoulder and glared at Jimmy with a sudden fire in her eyes, "The funeral is in the morning."_

That was all Jimmy knew, but only because Libby had told him. Why couldn't he remember any of this? He guessed he must have suffered some memory loss because of the extreme stress and the complete devastation at losing someone he loved… and had never told that he loved.

The harpist stopped playing, and Jimmy looked finally up to the front of the church. The pastor stood up and the church was deadly silent but for the creaking of pews.

"Dearly beloved," the pastor began, and Jimmy grasped his own trembling hands as his eyes fell on the hundreds of flowers around the smooth mahogany casket. The same picture on the small laminated card was in a frame on the closed top, "We are gathered here to mourn in the death and celebrate the life of Miss Cynthia Aurora Vortex."

Upon hearing her name in this funeral speech, Jimmy buried his face in his hands and pressed extra hard on his eyeballs to keep the tears from coming, though he knew this to have no scientific effect on stemming the flow of his tears.

The pastor continued reading, and Libby shook next to Sheen, crying silently but convulsively.

Jimmy felt absolute turmoil in his soul as he tuned the pastor's words over and over in his head. Was there anything he could have done to save her? No, he had been away. But he could have told her how he felt… he could still remember their last conversation… Let's just say it hadn't been a good one.

As this eulogy came to a close, Jimmy tightened his grip on the pew ahead of him. The pastor was going to read some scripture, and then people were going to get up to talk about Cindy.

The scripture didn't seem very fitting. Cindy had never been a particularly religious person. This Jimmy knew. It was one of the only things they had ever agreed on, except for each one's mutual dislike of the other… and Jimmy now realized how ironic it was that this was all completely false… for him, at least...

When the pastor had finished, however, Jimmy was a wreck. He couldn't stop thinking about Cindy and all the time he had loved her and never told her.

If she had felt the same way, then there was so much time they could have spent together… before she died.

It took him a second after looking up to register who was speaking. Cindy's grandpa spoke from the podium about the times he'd spent with Cindy as a little girl. Jimmy saw Mr. Vortex pat his wife's shoulder comfortingly in the row ahead of him, as Sasha Vortex had obviously begun to cry a new stronger bout of tears.

People got up, one after another. A surprising amount of people had decided they had something good to say about the spunky blonde who had so recently disappeared from their midst.

After a few of their other classmates, Libby got up, and Jimmy heard her give a story about the last time she had spoken to Cindy, and said she had many to tell about the good times she'd had with her best friend in the world.

"We had fun talking about music, school, and boys," at the last item on the list she looked pointedly at Jimmy, who gave her a sad smile. He had been thinking for the last ten minutes and he finally knew what he wanted to say. When Libby had finished, having decided to tell the story about the time she and Cindy went with the guys to Egypt, she sat down, and there was perfect silence but for the chirping of some birds outside.

Jimmy stood up, and he could sense the stillness in the church as it intensified. He gave an even sadder smile, because he knew exactly what they were thinking: _What will the boy genius have to say about his archenemy- the girl he hated the most?_

Or maybe, on some level they knew about his feelings for the girl who no longer was, and they just felt sorry for him.

He walked past the coffin, tears springing to his eyes immediately. He wiped them away as he reached the podium.

"Cindy Vortex," he started, his voice breaking and his words choked with emotion. The whole church stared at him sadly. He continued slowly, "You want to know the last thing I said to her?" he asked rhetorically, "We had an argument after school. It was about Nick Dean. She'd agreed to go out with him. This was always an issue of jealousy for me, so we fought about it… This time for the last time," he smiled wistfully, "I recall telling her to get out of my life," he lifted a trembling hand from its death grip on the podium, "and now that I've said those words…" His voice shook as he spoke and he took a deep breath, "I regret them more than anything."

He took another deep breath, deciding once and for all to expose his feelings. So what if the person they would matter to the most wasn't here to listen?

"Most of you probably thought I hated Cindy. Some of you knew I didn't," he saw Libby nod and close her eyes, crying again, "She was a very complex person. I never could figure her out. And I think she had this knowledge and enjoyed it… immensely," Jimmy smiled his first real smile of the day, "But she never knew just how much power she had over me. I never told her." Jimmy wiped a tear from his left eye. "I never told her how much I loved her," he ignored the shocked faces of the majority of people in the pews. He heard their whispers and was amazed at his new inability to care, "That's right," he announced, and the whispers quieted down, "I loved her."

He looked down to the coffin again before speaking. "I loved her hair and her eyes and her smile and her intelligence and her confidence and her fighting spirit and her…" His voice broke again, but he continued as if his heart was squeezing the words out of his throat, "And it kills me that I never told her."

"Cindy was an amazing girl, and somehow we'll all survive without her. She was cruelly taken from us much too early, but not before she touched everyone's lives. For me, at least, I'll never be able to deal with the loss of the girl I loved more than anything in the world. I would give my life if I knew I could see her and talk to her one last time before I went."

He looked at the audience seriously, "Take my advice: Don't keep your feelings inside. You won't be able to live with yourself if you do. Trust me. I learned this the hard way." He sighed and backed away from the podium, fighting back tears as he passed the coffin again.

He sat back down behind Cindy's parents in his seat in the second row. Libby gave him a quick hug and showed intentions of wanting to speak to him and Carl told him in a whisper that his speech was beautiful.

He'd had more to say up there in his mini speech, but he left his words unsaid to turn around in his head in silence as the service went on.

As he was thinking, the service shifted to a hymn, and the familiar opening chords of Amazing Grace hit Jimmy's ears. The whole church stood, and began to sing. Jimmy felt the music stir his heart and small tears leak out of his eye one after another. He let them fall down his cheeks, and then he lowered his head and listened to the sound of 500 voices singing the beautiful hymn. It was a surreal moment. There was so much passion and sorrow in the voices and faces of the people around him. At was all too much. He made his way out of the row and out through the throngs of singers to the exit in the back of the church.

Before he had any idea what was happening, he was at Cindy's gravestone. It made no sense… he had just been at the service. He checked the ground below him. It was freshly dug but definitely closed. He must have zoned out completely… for a few hours? He couldn't remember doing anything since bursting out of the church doors…

He was stopped from investigating the matter further by shadow on his right. He turned. It was Libby, in a black dress similar to the one she had been wearing at the funeral.

"You really did love her," she stared at her best friend's effigy sadly.

Jimmy stared too, "I know I did."

"You should have told her. Why didn't you tell her? What were you afraid of?"

"That's why. I was afraid. Afraid my own feelings were too strong… afraid of rejection."

"But would you have been rejected?" Libby looked at him analytically.

"I don't kn-" he began.

"Exactly. And you will never know. You will never have known and you never will …because you never told her."

In an instant the whole crowd from the funeral was around Jimmy, appearing seemingly from nowhere, singing, "Tell her, never told her, should have told her," over and over again, these same words with swelling volume pounded like sledgehammers on Jimmy's brain continuously until suddenly… it all stopped.

So… What's happening here? Does anyone know? Guess and you get a cookie. Yes, this was supposed to be a one-shot, as I mentioned, but there's one more chapter, and it's already been written, so I'll post it as soon as I get some reviews. I'm pretty excited. It's my first posted fanfic and I would really like some feedback ) thanks in advance!

Kle


	2. Realization & Confession w alt ending

**Oookay so thanks you soooo much for all the reviews! I seriously love you guys! But now it's time for some excuses: Libby was a little OOC in the first one, but there's a reason, and almost all of you have figured it out. It actually renders a great chunk of this chapter unnecessary… Anyways, for this one, there's no excuse for OOCness so you can call me out on it if you feel so inclined.**

**I had someone ask me a few questions in a private message, and to answer it for everyone's benefit: what inspired this fic? I went to a funeral of the mom of a girl I know and it was just… so sad. I cried through like the whole thing. .**

**Leave it to me to take a really sad experience for this family and turn it into a JN fanfic. Oh and it also reminded me of Angel's funeral in RENT, which almost always makes me cry. (And yes the title of this fanfic is based on the song from RENT, in case no one got that)**

**So, enough of my rambling. Go read.**

There was utter silence. Jimmy squinted into the darkness trying to figure out where he was. His first thought was that he had been pushed down on the ground in the graveyard. When he inhaled, however, he sensed the space above him and fresh air instead of the musty scent of the ground he had been expecting. He had a sense of fleeting panic… and he could make out the outline of pipes on the ceiling… which told him more than anything he definitely was not in the graveyard. He looked around more anxiously, his eyes finally adjusting to the darkness.

He was in his lab. How many hours since the funeral had it been? How had he gotten to the lab? He looked down. He was wearing a lab coat, his regular atom symbol t-shirt and a pair of jeans. Where was his suit? He specifically remembered wearing a suit to Cindy's funeral... speaking of his clothes; they were covered in perspiration. Jimmy raised his hand and felt his face, which was covered in a chilled, salty combination of cold sweat and tears.

This brought his mind back to… _Cindy…_ He stood up slowly and walked to a table over on the side, moved a few things aside and lifted up a small picture of a smiling Cindy. This was from happier times… when she was alive and well. Jimmy hugged the picture in its frame briefly, before staring at it until his eyes practically burned from focusing on her every feature, concentrating as if he knew that if he stared hard enough, she would be alive again.

A long while later, Jimmy emerged from the clubhouse door, blinking rapidly in the dazzling sunshine so sharply in contrast to the quiet darkness of the lab.

He saw the pink house that used to be Cindy's and the empty room that she used to occupy. Cindy's dad was out front, mowing the lawn, singing cheerily over the noise of the mower.

Jimmy frowned. How could he be so upbeat when his daughter had just died 3 days ago? Turning towards the park, Jimmy walked up the street with his head down, images of Cindy swirling around in his head. He found himself walking through the park, by the fountain, where the two had first met. He gave a sad smile. He certainly hadn't known when he met her there years ago how much that bossy blonde girl with the pigtails would come to change his life, and how much he would come to love her.

He kept going, staring down to the pavement underneath his feet. He saw the pink shoes and heard the warning voice too late, and there was a collision after which Jimmy found himself lying on the pathway, the wind knocked out of him.

"Uhh," his crash partner groaned from a few inches to his right, "Watch where you're going, Nerd-tron."

The familiarity of this voice and this nickname caused Jimmy to completely stop breathing for what felt like a minute.

He sat up slowly and all of the pieces fell into place in his head instantly. He stared at her, feeling transfixed, confused, alarmed, relieved, and frightened, all at the same time.

His mouth was open as he gazed and reasoned the whole situation out loud.

"It was all a dream!" he explained excitedly as she dusted herself off irritably on the pavement, "That's why Libby changed her dress and I had no memory and I was always places without knowing how I got there… and the singing people and the messed up time and the grave…"

Cindy Vortex stared at him, with a mixed look of confusion and anger, "What the hell are you talking about?"

Jimmy looked at her as if he had just realized she was there, though he obviously had not, "I have a highly developed brain," he stated (not in a bragging way), "So I have a highly developed subconscious and very complicated dreams," he shifted his position on the ground as Cindy watched him, "I often have flashbacks during them, highly developed story lines, and …I often mistake them for reality."

Cindy shook her head, still quite confused, "This obviously has nothing to do with me or anything I care about," she chided, somewhat jokingly, "And I'm meeting Nick at my house in ten minutes… I'm just gonna go," she started to get up off the concrete walkway when he immediately reacted.

"No!" he practically shouted; his anxiety at her words rooted her to the spot. He calmed down and said quietly, "this has everything to do with you,"

Despite herself, Cindy was intrigued, "Go on," she started, looking apprehensively into his deep blue eyes. Her pulse quickened as she watched him try to gather his words.

He looked back into her eyes for the first time, taking a deep breath, "Where should I start?" Cindy rolled her eyes somewhat, still listening intently, "You remember that fight you and I got into yesterday?" her eyes flashed and to stop her from retorting Jimmy continued hurriedly, "I take that as a yes."

He stood up, offered his hand to Cindy to help her up, walked to the side of the fountain, and he sat down on its edge. Cindy followed him to the fountain, but not before she began mentally debating the merits of just walking away and continuing her trip home.

He buried his face in his hands for a moment. He was half ecstatic, still dealing with the knowledge that Cindy was alive and well. The other half of him was extremely apprehensive, because the voice in the back of his head poked at him annoyingly, urging him to take a drastic action he knew he must now take…

"Well, I guess I felt kinda bad about that fight or maybe my brain was trying to tell me something… maybe, this whole thing with Nick has made me feel like I'm losing you, and I guess in this dream I actually did lose you," (this prompted Cindy to think _'lose me? since when did you ever **have** me?),_ "but I had an extremely vivid dream last night. I guess you could call it a lucid dream, because I had complete control over my actions, and a lucid dream is clearly defined as-" Cindy held up her hand to stop him from reciting in his textbook-like manner, so he moved on, smiling inwardly at her intelligence, "But when the dream started, I knew exactly where I was. I was at a funeral," He looked down from her face awkwardly, "Your funeral."

There was a momentary pause, "You had a dream that I had died."

"Yes."

"And then you went to my funeral. Is that what you're telling me?"

Jimmy rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "That's a fairly accurate summary, yes."

She got up to leave.

"No!" he shouted again, this time physically pulling her back instead of mentally, she glared at him and he let go of her arm as if it had burned him before continuing, "It was a big funeral," he started to tell the story again, hoping to make her stay, "Lots of people - hundreds."

"Oh, well it's good to know I'm very popular at your dream-funerals," she muttered dryly.

Jimmy continued, unfazed, "I was a wreck, Cindy,"

"What?" she stopped smiling and cocked her head to the side.

"My hands were shaking, I couldn't breathe, I …cried. I don't normally cry... And who would have ever thought I would be crying for you?" His stab at humor failed, and he continued, but not before examining Cindy's face. She appeared to be listening, though she looked like she had no idea what to do with the information. Jimmy decided he had made it too far to stop his confession, so he eventually continued his fractured statement, "And that was just the outward manifestation of my grief. I was completely broken inside."

"It was just a dream, Neutron," Cindy finally countered, a little bit alarmed.

"But I didn't know that," Jimmy took her left hand in both of his, desperately, and Cindy looked down, even more surprised at the gesture, "I thought you were really dead. And it made me think…" He dropped her hand and got up, pacing in front of the fountain and the wide-eyed blonde, "Everyone was getting up to say things about you, and then it was my turn. I got up… and I made a confession. I revealed the biggest secret of my life to hundreds of people and I didn't even care," he stopped pacing and stared past Cindy down into the clear water pensively.

"What did you tell them?" Cindy asked curiously and uneasily, so quietly it was barely audible.

"…I didn't care because the one person that it would have mattered to the most, and the one person I cared to know it… was gone."

"What did you tell them?" she repeated, with the same undertones, though a little louder. Her eyes never left his face, though his gaze had not yet moved to hers.

"Have you ever regretted something so much it hurt to live in the moments that followed? That's how I felt. It was the worst feeling," he shuddered, despite the warmth of the morning sun beating down on his arms and neck, "and I can't live with it any more. Since I've woken up I don't have to. The dream made me realize that time is precious, and can be taken away at any time. If we don't make the best of what we have, when time runs out, we'll have accomplished absolutely nothing."

"Very profound. What did you tell them?"

Deaf to her repeated inquiry, Jimmy kept going, "The dream made me see what I really felt inside without you being there. It made me evaluate a world without you in it. It exposed my feelings and put them into words for me. Until last night I don't even think I knew how I felt. And now I do. That's what I told them."

Cindy stared, and finally spoke, needing to hear him say something consequential, "Specifically, what did you tell them?" she was angry now, and she was feeling increasingly uncomfortable; she wanted him to get it over with, "Out with it, Neutron."

"It's just…" Jimmy sat back down on the fountain's edge. Finally looking back into her eyes, he stiffened his resolve and finally uttered that fatal sentence, shaking his head disbelievingly and apologetically as he spoke, "…I'm in love with you."

Cindy froze. She realized she had been waiting to hear him say this for a long time now. But now that he'd finally said it, she found she couldn't handle it. She still wasn't ready with a response. His timing could not have been worse.

"I always have been." He continued, measuring her response sadly. She hadn't moved.

Her brain was in panic mode. Five minutes ago she had been the girlfriend of the coolest guy in town, with no problems but for a secret love… but now that secret love was revealing itself and… helplessness was overwhelming her. The fact that she felt helpless scared her the most. Cindy Vortex and helpless didn't work well together. Looking back at the moment, of all the possible ways to respond, she probably took the worst one of all.

"You're… what? What are you taking about?" Cindy spoke defensively, looking back at him with a look that Jimmy couldn't quite place in an emotional category.

"I just needed you to know," he said quietly, though not pleadingly, "That way I can stop regretting not having told you."

Cindy shook her head in denial, "We're not even… friends, Neutron. We're enemies," Jimmy looked at her sadly, as the use of his surname rung in his ears. It was a bad sign

In desperation, he continued, "Only on the surface we are," he argued, "at least for me. I can't speak for your feelings, of course. But… I love you, Cindy. And I don't even just want to be friends… I want to be more. I love-"

"I… can't deal with this right now…" Cindy interrupted, and she got up to walk away before she stopped, "Why did you just say that? It ruined everything… like Nick and me… everything was going fine before."

"Not for me," Jimmy took a step toward her, "I was dying inside, Cindy. I had to tell you… I'm really sorry if this is hard for you to hear right now," his apology, more than anything she'd heard thus far, shocked Cindy. After all these years, she couldn't remember a time when she had heard James Isaac Neutron say, _I'm sorry. _He broke her train of thought"… but, Cindy…"

"Stop saying my name," she cut in quietly, and Jimmy felt all hope leave his body at that instant. Any buoyant, hopeful thought that remained was blown away by the icy chill of her voice as she uttered that command.

"I'm sorry if I misinterpreted things. I obviously did…" Jimmy practically whispered back, "I was just taking my own advice from the dream. That's all I could do. The rest… I guess…" he trailed off as he sat back down on the edge of the fountain and closed his eyes in quiet acceptance, feeling utterly defeated, his mind blank, waiting for her retreating footsteps.

Cindy just stared for a second and walked away as quickly as she could without running back to her house.

------

"When? About three minutes ago," she answered her friend's inquiry on the phone from her darkened entryway as soon as she got home, "Well-" she began, when she was interrupted by Libby again, "I…of course… um, the fountain… What did I say? I didn't know what to say," she paused again as Libby asked her a question that Libby had wondered many times but had never actually asked Cindy directly, "Am I in love with him too?" the longest pause yet occurred as Cindy looked to find the answer. She didn't think it would be so easy but it was, and the answer came out, almost silently, apologetically, "Yeah, I think I am."

There was another lengthy pause, as Libby was speechless on the other line, Cindy opened her mouth to say more when the door behind her shut with a soft click and she nearly dropped the phone, "Libby, I have to go,"

She wiped a tear from her eye quickly and turned around, "Listen, Jimmy…" the rest of her sentence was cut off, never to be finished, by the kiss that had been a long time coming.

Jimmy had his hands placed around the limp Cindy, and after a few seconds he felt her hands on his shoulders and the back of his neck as she began to kiss him back.

After about ten seconds, Cindy felt Jimmy's grip on her loosen, and he pulled back. He opened his eyes after a moment, looking back into hers from mere inches away.

His euphoria at finally having kissed her was gone in an instant, as he saw the ghost of apprehension in her eyes. Slightly amazed at his own boldness, and a bit ashamed, he looked away for a moment, planning on giving her a chance to speak, but his mind forced him to look back.

The look he saw in them he didn't like. It was a look of sadness, and a look of possible regret.

Cindy was torn between two possible reactions. She could either slap him and keep up the façade she'd kept up for so long of not being in love with him, or she could tell him exactly how she felt and put herself on the line as he had earlier.

After seconds of breathless debate, she chose the former, though kept from slapping him, because, however she tried to deny it, she was in love with him, she just… couldn't bring herself to tell him.

Jimmy stared incredulously at her as the silence lengthened and she stared remorsefully back.

He felt all the years of stolen glances, secret thoughts and innocent moments melt away in an instant from the look of unreturned love she gave him right then. She opened her mouth, possibly to speak, when Jimmy shook his head and backed away, releasing her from his embrace.

Her intentions were obvious and Jimmy realized he didn't need to hear her rejection in verbal form. It was already written all over her face. He felt the emotional equivalent of a slow, painful death overtake him as he slowly resigned himself to the truth.

He couldn't keep the hurt off of his face as he backed out the door, hating only himself for falling so far in love, and blaming only himself for the hurt that had been inflicted upon him in the last few moments. Suffer as he might, he couldn't bring himself to hate her, because, well… he loved her.

**ORIGINAL ENDING**

**So, if that didn't satisfy you, (because I tell you, it's not the way I originally ended it,) you can look at this original ending. I felt this particular conclusion was a bit weak, so rewrote it into the one you just read. I just felt the revised one fit more with the tone of the story. (Plus, I got my idea for most of the ending from last week's season finale episode of The Office, and that's how _that _ended.)**

**So here's the original. You can take whichever one you want as the real ending.**

After about ten seconds, she felt Jimmy's grip on her loosen, and he pulled back, looking into her eyes from mere inches away.

He saw the ghost of apprehension in her eyes. Slightly amazed at his own boldness, and a bit ashamed, he looked away for a moment, planning on giving her a chance to speak, but his mind forced him to look back.

Once she had gotten over her shock, she felt the burden of her secret lifted off her shoulders as she stared back into his blue eyes, for once, feeling free to show the love she had once kept hidden behind hers.

"I love you, too," she whispered as she leaned in to kiss him again.

She felt his lips smile against hers, "I know."

**Hmm… What do you think? Which ending do you, the reviewer and my beloved reader, like better? Personally, I don't know which I like more, so I decided to include them both. I feel the first one is better written, and more in character (though the whole chapter is OOC for Jimmy I think, though the dream is supposed to have effected him severely, so he's supposed to be a little OOC), but the J/C shipper in me obviously prefers my original ending. Please let me know, and even if you prefer neither, let me know when you review… Thanks for reading and I really hoped you liked it. If people liked this one…. Maybe I'll write some more. Who knows?**

**Kle**


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